Technicians

The devil is in the details. So what are your clients noticing about your practice and team members?

Use this checklist to prepare for the day's appointments and predict clients' and pets' needs.

You're fabulous, of course, but are you doing enough to really shine?

Our practice does lab testing in-house and the results often vary. How can we boost our proficiency?

Think your practice is a zoo? Try visiting one. That's what the team at Sanford Animal Hospital in Sanford, N.C., did. Team members and their families took in the zoo at their leisure, then they met up at the outdoor pavilion for hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the fixin's.

I want to send a mailing to market our clinic's dental promotion. Our area of influence is about 2 miles, and that encompasses a population of about 200,000. How can I get the addresses of the households in a certain area or city? Do you know how to focus a mailing to a certain demographic to target people who might own pets?

Curb the 5 o'clock chaos with these simple steps to streamline your discharge appointments and send clients away happy.

It doesn't take a crystal ball to know who'll walk through your practice door next. All you really need is a meeting, says Cindie McDuffee, the office manager at Animal Hospital of Thousand Oaks in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Attending a national veterinary conference offers big payoffs, but it often isn't free-unless you're one lucky team member at Pet Care Veterinary Hospital in Virginia Beach, Va. Lori-Jo Havener, LVT, planned a contest to give the practice's technicians and assistants a chance to attend a national veterinary conference.

When it's time to talk about a pet's weight with clients, be sensitive.

Q. I'm a credentialed technician, and I'm interested in specialty training. What are my options?

Q. How do I know whether I have the right retirement plan to meet my objectives?

Your team can help heal the hurt pets feel with a pain management program that supports pet owners.

Q. Our team members make different product recommendations for heartworm and flea and tick prevention. How do we get them on the same page?

Bring your knowledge and an animal or two-you'll be the greatest show on earth.

When it's time to negotiate, don't be a doormat or a bully. Use these tips to find common ground.

Practices across the country are fielding waves of calls from scared pet owners as news about the pet food recall continues to break. Use these tips to answer clients' questions.

After a loss, take these steps to recognize clients' special relationships with their pets.

You never know what you're going to see in practice-it can be a real mixed bag.

The mean hourly wages of veterinary technicians and assistants were recently reported to be $12.90 and $9.90, respectively, as of March 2005. That was two years ago, so I would predict those figures will increase by 10 percent – to $14.14 and $10.90 – by the time you read this.

Need a new system to make sure callbacks happen? Joanne Bowman, RVT, a technician at Cottonwood Animal Hospital in Ottawa, Kan., uses plastic file baskets to hold each doctor's callback files in a central location.

Here's how to dress for the level of success you never wanted to achieve.

Ask Amy: Holiday scheduling blues

Not sure what to do with your empty walls? Charisse Lombardo, an interior de signer and president of CLM interiors in Ridgefield, Conn., suggests creating your own wall of fame.

Your practice isn't a bank, and you're not a loan officer. Use these eight strategies to make sure your practice gets paid for services--so the practice owner can pay you.

There's a different kind of pain that comes from making the decision of life or death for a pet.

Mrs. Smith is on the phone again. Someone from your practice left her a message.

Your practice is unique. Maybe you offer a service others don't, or maybe you just do it better. But if you don't tell clients why you're so special, they just might miss it. And wouldn't that be a shame?